Will wasn't prepared for what happened later that night. Jay headed back out on a lead with their case, so he headed home with Hailey. She went out with some friends and he went to Molly's with some of his. He planned to pick her up later, something she wasn't too thrilled about, but he had insisted on keeping an eye on her. He wanted to make sure she was safe, and although she argued, he knew she was secretly okay with it.
"April," Will said as he answered his phone. "Where are you? We've been waiting on you."
"Will," she said slowly. "I'm still at work, and you need to get here."
"I'm not on call tonight, and I've been drinking, so I can't come in." He frowned. "What's going on?"
"No, the hospital doesn't need you," she said. "I'm calling you because you're next of kin."
"What?" He said slowly as he processed it all. Jay worked a dangerous job and he was deep in a case, but Hailey wasn't a stranger to hospitals, and his Dad was having a rough time lately. "Which one?"
"Jay was shot in the line of duty," she said. "They're bringing him into surgery now."
"I'll be right there," he said.
He was sitting at one of the booths in the middle of the bar, his back facing the door, when he felt a hand on his shoulder and his name from the deep voice of Voight. He turned and the look on his face sent a chill down his spine as he hung up the phone.
"Come on," Voight nodded. "I'll give you a ride to the hospital."
Will followed him out of the bar and into the SUV. "We need to get Hailey," he said. "She can't find out over the phone."
"Mouse tracked her phone," he said as he drove. "Antonio went to pick her up."
"How bad is it?" He asked.
"I don't know," he said. "The doctors said they're doing everything they can."
Will smirked. "That's just what we tell people," he said. "Especially, when it's bad."
"I've seen people come back from worse, people not nearly as strong as your brother." He said as he pulled into the parking lot. "Don't be a doctor in there, be a brother."
The second Will walked through those doors and into the waiting room, Hailey collided with him. She was a mess, a rambling, crying, overreacting disaster that Will didn't have time to fall apart himself. He just held her tightly against him as he looked to Maggie for answers.
"He was shot in the neck," she explained. "The bullet missed the artery, but barely, and they're working on him now. Will, he's your brother, and he's CPD, trust me, he's getting nothing but the best we have."
Will nodded. "Thanks, Maggie." He looked down at Hailey for a moment before glancing around the room full of officers. "Come on, let's talk for a minute."
Hailey let him guide her into one of the empty conference rooms. He shut the door behind him and sat her down in one of the chairs, kneeling in front of her. He was trying to be strong for her, but she knew he was worried too. "I'm scared, Will," she said through the tears. "What if he's not okay?"
Will put his hands on hers and looked right into her eyes. "He will be," he said. "It's Jay, he made it through a war, he'll make it through this."
"Are you trying to convince me or you?" She asked.
He grinned and wiped away her tears. "Both of us," he said. "We have to believe he'll be okay, but we need to lean on each other, so don't spiral with this."
"I'll try," she nodded.
"Alright, good." He said as he kissed her head and they headed back out to the waiting room.
Will sat beside Erin, slinging an arm around her in an effort to comfort her. She was worried and upset too, trying to hold it in, but he knew how much Jay meant to her. Hailey was on his other side, leaning against him as they all waited for updates. It was bad, and the surgery was long, but he eventually pulled through and Hailey and Will were allowed into his room. There were many machines and wires, his neck was wrapped, and he looked awful, but he was alive.
"It's okay," Will reassured his sister as he rubbed her back. "He's okay."
OOOOO
Will paced around the apartment when he got home from work late that night. Jay had woken up after two days in a coma and seemed to be improving over the last few days. Visiting hours had ended at eight that night and that was the last time he saw Hailey. She was supposed to go home, but it was four hours later and there was no sign of her. He called her phone only to be met with her voicemail and his text messages when unanswered.
There wasn't much else he could do, but he was getting worried. He had a bad feeling about it and he caved and called in a favour with Intelligence, for the second time that week. Mouse was a family friend, Jay had gotten him that job, and Will knew he'd help in any way he could. He was still at work, working late on the same case that got Jay shot.
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Mouse said when Will called to ask him to find Hailey. "Jay low jacked her phone a while back for this very reason. He has me keep an eye on her."
Will smirked. "Why am I not surprised?"
"It looks like she's on campus, more specifically a frat house." He said. "She's probably at some party, but I can send units over to pick her up? Lindsay is waving at me like a mad woman so I think that means she'll go."
"I might have better luck," Will heard Lindsay on the other end of the phone. "I'll bring Kim and get her home."
"Yeah, it didn't go so well last time I pulled her out of a party." Will sighed. "Sounds good, tell her I'll wait for her here."
"She's not doing well since Jay got hurt, is she?" Mouse asked. "Disappearing, acting out, and skipping class, stuff like that?"
"You got it," he said. "Thanks for helping out, Mouse."
Will hung up and continued to pace around the apartment until he got a text from Erin saying they had her and were on their way. He felt a strange mixture of relief and anger and tried his best to calm down before they came through the doorway.
He took one look at Hailey and knew she was in rough shape. He exchanged a glance with Erin who was support her and she shook her head, a silent signal that things didn't go well. Will stepped forward and reached out to help steady his sister, grabbing onto one of her arms.
"Hailey," he said as he put a hand on the back of her head. "Hailey,"
"Will," she mumbled. "I'm sorry."
He could smell the alcohol on her breath and shook his head. "Did you take anything?"
"No, I just drank," she shook her head, slurring her words. "I drank a lot, don't be mad."
"I'm not mad," he said, even though he was. "But I need you to tell me everything."
"I didn't take anything," she repeated. "I promise."
"Okay, Hailey, how much did you drink?" He asked.
"I don't know," she said. "Will, I wanna go to sleep."
Erin shook her head. "Best to let her sleep it off and ask questions later."
"Yeah," he nodded and carried Hailey to her bed, placing her on top, taking her shoes off and covering her with a blanket. He placed a garbage can by the side of her bed and met Erin in the doorway.
"You have to tell Jay about this," she said. "This is the second time this week, she's spinning, Will."
"I know," he said. "But not yet."
OOOOO
Hailey was pacing around the hospital room as Will was looking over Jay's chart a few days later. He was awake and watching both his siblings. He knew this past week hadn't been easy for either of them to see him hurt, but it seemed to be worse than he thought on them. He kept his eye on Hailey, she couldn't sit still and she didn't look good, she was clenching her jaw a lot and looked like she had spent the night partying. Will was working last night and couldn't verify where she was, which he knew was a bad sign, but she showed up at eight that morning when visiting hours started.
"Hails, enough with the pacing." Jay sighed. "Sit down, please."
She sat in the chair beside the bed, but she continued to move her leg and the more he watched her, the more he was sure she was on something. He stared her down, leaning his head to the side as he frowned. "Are you high?" He asked seriously.
"What?" Will said, snapping his head up from the chart to look at her.
"No," she mumbled.
"No?" Will raised his eyebrows. "Come here,"
"Leave me alone," she snapped. "I'm an adult."
"Are you serious?" Will said as he crossed the room and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him. "After everything we went through to get you help, after all the work you put in, and especially with Jay in the hospital, you go back to this?"
"Let go of me," she pulled out of his grip. "It's not a big deal."
"Hailey," Jay said.
"I thought you were going to die," she cried out. "You almost did."
"Then you talk to me, or someone else, you don't do drugs, we've been over this." Will said, raising his voice. "I'll tell you one thing, Hailey, I've had enough."
"Will," Jay interrupted. "If I remember correctly, you went through a similar partying phase at her age."
"Yeah, I did," Will said. "And you came to New York and kicked my ass, and maybe that's what she needs."
"You were out of control," Jay said.
"So is she," Will argued. "Have you been to class at all this week? What are your grades like, huh? Did she tell you that she's been out partying every night since you've been in here? I've had to get Mouse to track her phone twice because she didn't come home and when she did come home without police intervention, she was a drunk mess."
"Hailey," Jay said. "Please tell me that isn't true."
"You don't get it," she shook her head.
"You think I don't know what it's like to see someone I care about in the hospital?" He asked. "You've been in here three times in the last few months."
"I didn't get shot in the neck!" She exclaimed. "And I wasn't hooked up to machines fighting for my life. Last time I saw someone like that, they didn't make it, and you expect me to just go about my day like everything is good?"
"I expect you to handle difficult situations without drinking and using drugs," he said. "If this is some cry for attention consider it received, because I'm off work for a few weeks and it will be spent watching you like a hawk."
"Whatever," she mumbled and stormed out of the room.
"Let her go," Jay said firmly as Will moved to follow her. "She'll come back."
"It's been hell this week with her, Jay." He said. "How can you just let her go off again?"
"Because this isn't about me, didn't you hear her?" He said. "It's about Mom. All this time we thought it was about Dad, but it's not. She never dealt with Mom's death and whenever she gets scared that someone else might leave, she self-medicates to fill the void."
"Woah," Will said slowly. "How did I miss that?"
"Because, you're not listening to her, Will." He said. "You're so caught up in what she's doing that you're missing the why part. Go home after shift and just talk to her, you're off in a few hours, let her cool off."
OOOOO
Will took Jay's advice and left Hailey alone for the day. He headed home a few hours later and hoped she would be there, but she wasn't. He sighed and waited, hoping she would come through the door eventually, and when she finally did, he was ready and waiting for her in the living room.
"Where have you been?" He asked, trying to stay calm as he muted the game he was watching.
She shrugged. "Just around," she said as she sat down on the other end of the couch. "School library mostly."
He nodded. "What were you on this morning?"
She didn't look at him. "Molly," she mumbled. "I didn't mean to take it,"
"You didn't mean to take drugs?" He asked with a frown as he crossed his arms.
"No, I mean I didn't plan to, I just did without thinking about it," she said. "Old habits."
"Because seeing Jay in the hospital reminded you of Mom?" He asked, slinging his arm across the back of the couch. "Come on, Hails, talk to me baby."
"I was scared, and I couldn't get all the thoughts out of my head and I just wanted to silence everything until I was sure he was okay." She said. "I went on a bender, and I hate myself for being so weak."
"Hey, I don't want to hear you talk like that," he said. "You're not weak and you have no reason to hate yourself. You have a problem, Hailey, and you need to keep working on it. This was a bump in the road, so what are you going to do?"
"Start over?" She shrugged and finally looked at him, tears in her eyes. "Help me."
"Hails," he frowned with concern as he reached out to hold her, wrapping his arms tightly around her. "Of course I'll help you, it's going to be okay, sweetheart."
